Surely, the pleasant hearkening back to carefree summer days of childhood must be a universal feeling, with the sun warm against our skin, all of nature in full-on green, tomatoes on the vines and birdsong filling the air. Time just now is an amiable companion, seeming to wait for us to walk as slowly as we want, to savor and recall other days, to enjoy in this moment what we’ll want to reminisce over tomorrow. With barely a toe dipped into a cool stream or a spoonful of home-churned ice cream relished, doesn’t time seem more precious than ever?
Gina Malone, Editor
When the day’s a scorcher with no promise of a refreshing downpour or a cooling breeze, standing beside a waterfall with its sound in the ears and its mist on the skin feels like heaven. Check out Mike Moore’s new book visiting some of Western North Carolina’s cascading beauties, and know that your purchase of the book helps small businesses in Brevard hit hard, like others everywhere, by the pandemic.
Some other summer essentials we’ve rounded up include cold ice cream, bright flowers, cozy tents under the stars, marvelous crafts and rousing music. How much of the familiar we all missed last year! And as it’s all beginning to come back, this might be a good time to reflect on the amazing job that people everywhere have done in keeping viable the places and events with which we nonchalantly filled our days before we realized that the whole world could, yes, come to a grinding halt. A lot of work went into keeping the momentum going with virtual events and safe presentations. And if you’re one of those who took time this past year to support local businesses as they struggled to adapt, visited artists’ and artisans’ websites, bought books and albums from local artists, ordered take-out or donated to local causes, give yourself a pat on the back—and keep doing what you’re doing. You’re the reason we at The Laurel of Asheville are able to write stories about all that’s still happening in our beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains!
Gina Malone can be reached at gina@thelaurelofasheville.com.
